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Wednesday, 2 December 2015

Barbie & Her Sisters: Puppy Rescue

We have a few games up this week for you, so if you are looking for some newly launched games, whether it's for yourself or as Christmas presents, do check our reviews out. Please do accept my apologies for the pictures' quality on this post, I only discovered that I can take pictures in game for both the main and touch screen on our Nintendo consoles (much to learn!). The graphics quality is much better in real of course!

First up this week is one for the Barbie fans and/ or those who love puppies - Barbie & Her Sisters: Puppy Rescue.

The game starts with Barbie ready to ride her bicycle to rescue puppies

Left: Inside the rescue centre, Right: Map of the city. Barbie's logo marks where Barbie is

Players play as Barbie in Barbie & Her Sisters: Puppy Rescue (pegi 3; available on Wii, Wii U, 3DS and PS3). They are to rescue puppies on the street and nourish them back to being healthy and happy, before sending them back to their owners or find a new matching owner for them. This includes giving them vaccines, bathing them, brushing their teeth and playing with them.

The game (the Nintendo 3DS version) offers 3 file slots to save the game to, but it is an auto-save game, so players will have to make sure that the game has been saved before leaving the game.

After a video clip telling players what they can do in the game, players will find Barbie standing next to her bike, ready to go out and rescue puppies. It can be a bit confusing at first as there is no instructions on how to move the bike and what to do. So here is what you can do when you enter the game:

1. turn Barbie around and enter the rescue centre. You will find yourself in the reception area, facing the door towards the Kennels, where they kept the rescued puppies. Here you can scroll to the left to see the credits, or scroll to the right to face the entrance of the rescue centre and head out.

2. ride the bike and go around the city, looking for posters for missing puppies. Players can use the map at the bottom screen to see where they are going.

Both me and Abby struggled to find out how to control the bike, until I accidentally hit the L and R buttons. We tend to forget them! As there aren't any instructions on how to move the bike (there are instructions for the rest of the things in the game though), it's good to press any buttons available on the controllers.

Right: Possible locations of where the puppy is are revealed on the map

Left: Aura around the place to investigate
Right: An indicator indicating that the puppy is here

Right: Give what the puppy wants

Finding a lost puppy:
Once you have found a poster of a missing puppy, possible locations of the puppy will be shown on the map. Simply cycle to each location to check them out.

Cycling can be tricky as the camera angle moves, and you might be spending some time to get used to adjusting movements. It is fun though, and much quicker than running of course!

Once a puppy is found, you'll have to befriend it so that you can bring it back to the rescue centre.

Right: clear instructions for what to do

Left: aiming exercise

This puppy needs a bit of training, but the energy level is low so need to wait until it is 100%

Right: accessories added to puppy's kennel

Teeth brushing

Try to squirt shampoo and water on the moving puppy

Nourish/ groom puppy:
Barbie will have to get the puppy back to being healthy and happy before returning it back to the owner, or find a new owner for it. Players can check each puppy's status and complete each task. Each task is like a mini game, including aiming correctly, doing the correct tricks, etc.

Although each task is very simple to do, they are fun and also train the players' hand eye coordination.

Every task completed will give Barbie dog bones, which she can use to get new equipments and even new Kennels to keep more puppies.

Puppy ready to go back to owner

Puppy up for adaption

Match making

Releasing the puppy:
Once the puppy is all happy and healthy, it's time to move him/ her on. A puppy could already have an owner, but if they don't, players will be given an extra task to search for the perfect owner for them. Every puppy that graduates gives Barbie 100 dog bone points.

What we think:
Both me and Abby like this game. It's not complicated, but sometimes you just want to play something simple and relaxing. We did struggle with how to play it at first, but it isn't hard to discover the game play once you have tried out all the buttons on the controller. The game is colourful, cheerful, and the puppies are adorable! It's fun trying to aim at them during grooming, and using dog bone points to exchange for nice equipments and more kennels.

The game is available now and I'm sure it'll make the perfect present for the Barbie fans!